


Two Roads Diverged

by mar106



Series: Feather and Gauntlet [10]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Established Relationship, Explanation for that in the Author's Note!, F/F, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, poemfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23487910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mar106/pseuds/mar106
Summary: Fareeha takes a second to think back along the path she had taken to where she was now, and how it all could've changed if she made one decision differently.
Relationships: Fareeha "Pharah" Amari/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
Series: Feather and Gauntlet [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1520231
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	Two Roads Diverged

**Author's Note:**

> So, y'know how Songfics include some or all of the lyrics or a certain song, either as a backdrop or with the characters singing it. This is the same thing, but with a poem. Some of you might know which one it is already. If you don't, it's [this one](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken).

_Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,  
_ _And sorry I could not travel both,  
_ _But be one traveler, and long I stood,  
_ _And looked down one as far as I could,  
_ _To where it bent in the undergrowth._

Here she stood, in front of the Egyptian Army recruitment office. She was 18, and for the first time in her life, she could do what she wanted. She could go forward, and do what her grandfather, Yusuf Amari wanted. She could serve her country, watch her friends die in front of her, and come home to struggle for the rest of her life - if she came home at all. She could turn around and do what her mother wanted. Go to school, study law or accounting or business, and live a comfortable life behind a desk, far from combat.

_Then took the other, as just as fair,  
_ _And having perhaps the better claim,  
_ _Because it was grassy, and wanted wear,  
_ _Though as for that, the passing there  
_ _Had worn them really about the same._

Fuck both of them. By God, she was _not_ going to go down some well-worn, predetermined path that _somebody else_ had picked for her. All her life it had been "Amari this" and "Amari that" and never "Fareeha." 

_And each that morning equally lay  
_ _In leaves no step had trodden black.  
_ _Oh, I kept to the first for another day!  
_ _Yet knowing how way leads on to way,  
_ _I doubted if I should ever come back._

She had hated nearly all her time in high school, except the time she spent in shop classes. She had gone from woodshop, to metalshop, to autoshop, and she had mentioned _maybe_ wanting to get a job straight out of high school. Due to her outstanding work and work ethic, her shop teacher had handed her a letter and pointed her in the direction of some places where her shop experience might help her. Now she was working in a real car repair shop, and her conviction that she loved to work with her hands only solidified. It was hard, but she didn't mind, and the satisfaction she got from doing _real work_ was unparalleled. Her boss was overall a pretty nice guy, he looked out for his employees and would always back them up when a customer tried to get uppity, but he would not shut up about college. (That was unfair. He didn't talk much. But when he did, there was a 50% chance he'd mention going to college.)

She had eventually started talking a few online classes, mostly just to get him to stop. She was grateful though, for without him she'd never have discovered engineering, which made numbers real and math mean something, and allowed you to fix much bigger, more complex problems than you could by hand and eye. And without discovering engineering, and eventually getting a degree in it, she would've never gotten the chance to work at Helix Security Industries. She never would've gotten the chance to work on the Raptora suit, and eventually even fly it. She never would've joined Overwatch.

_I shall be telling this with a sigh,  
_ _Somewhere ages and ages hence:_  
_Two roads diverged in a wood, and I?  
_ _I took the road less traveled by,  
_ _And that has made all the difference._

Coming out of her reverie, Fareeha looked back and saw how far she had come. How much that one decision had influenced her life. How it had led her here, to a woman that made even the most run-down base feel like home. 

Angela is conked out on the couch next to her, which had left her to reverie undisturbed. Fareeha lets out a long breath, lets the past wash over her and flow into the back of her mind, and leans into her lover’s soft shoulder and softer hair. 

The blonde hair shifts; the sweet lips murmur; they grow ever closer. Fareeha joins Angela in sleep, and there they dance to the melody of their love, hearts beating in time.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Fact! Robert Frost is one of my personal favorite poets, and the one I credit with inspiring me to write poetry at all. You can find some of my poetry on [my tumblr](), though, fair warning, I don't post it all that often.
> 
> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including (but not limited to):
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